Like most anthologies, there is a great variety of stories here: realist and more fantastical, bush and city, sad and amusing. 'Pigface' (the winningLike most anthologies, there is a great variety of stories here: realist and more fantastical, bush and city, sad and amusing. 'Pigface' (the winning story of the Margaret River Press short story prize), is a great piece of controlled prose, and unfolding tension. Kat is a ranger in an eco-resort; she knows she has a good job but the pushy guests she takes on a bush walk are hard to take: she tells them about the pigface plant 'Ted stabbed a question at her-Latin name? Like a fork pointed across a dinner table'. Luckily she knows the answer! Of course, tension builds and tempers flare as the walk goes on. In another story 'Living With Walruses' a group of walruses inexplicably takes over a beach of small coastal town. The locals love it (it brings tourists) but soon the smell and noise turn them against the creatures. It's a quirky story about tolerance and cruelty. I also loved 'Setting Sail'a quiet story where a gentle encounter with a neighbour offers hope to a woman in a controlling marriage. 'Descent' was also a wonderfully controlled story where the whole relationship of father and his young son from a previous marriage is revealed in one bush walk up (and down) a mountain. On the more amusing side, 'Small Fish' skewers a certain type of type of Aussie male on a fishing trip, although, in the end, the story is more poignant than harsh. I also enjoyed 'The Chopping Block', a moving, beautifully-written story about a woman and her dog, and loneliness and resilience. An underlying sense of tension is built (and a certain amount of blood spilt!). 'Habitat' is a clever piece of writing that covers a lot of issues on a small canvas, and almost imperceptibly builds up a sense of unease and angst in the everyday life of the main character. There is a lot of great writing here and something for everyone. *** Disclaimer, I have a piece in this anthology....more

What a strange little book. How on earth they made a film out of it is a mystery to me. Florence Green is a peculiar and passive character. although sWhat a strange little book. How on earth they made a film out of it is a mystery to me. Florence Green is a peculiar and passive character. although she does stand up to her nemesis, local toff Violet Gamart, with dire consequences. I feel the reader is asked to empathise with Florence (she starts the bookshop, she is kind, she loves her town and can see through the pretensions of others) but I felt like screaming at her. One of those books where you want to throw it at the wall when you've finished it....more

This is a book of (mostly) gentle anecdote as Susan Hill discusses books she is reading, and has read, the comings and goings of animals and birds aroThis is a book of (mostly) gentle anecdote as Susan Hill discusses books she is reading, and has read, the comings and goings of animals and birds around her house, and reflections on writers she has known (quite a lot of well-known ones such as J B Priestly, Iris Murdoch and Julian Barnes) - all set amidst the changing seasons. Of course she also reflects on her own writing and her writing life, quite amusingly about being pestered by school students to explain the meaning of 'The Woman in Black' which is a set text (it would never have crossed my mind to do this when I was a student but email is a double-edged sword). There is a sense of nostalgia but she is never sentimental and, to me, there is something very satisfying about an intelligent person just speaking her mind as though you are a long-standing friend who doesn't require being pandered to. ...more

This is a straight forward telling of Claire Tomalin's full and interesting life. I particularly liked the parts abut her parents - her father an anglThis is a straight forward telling of Claire Tomalin's full and interesting life. I particularly liked the parts abut her parents - her father an anglophile son of well-to-do French school teachers, her mother a Brit with a love of music and a composing talent that is not fulfilled. Her father was something a philanderer, and this was repeated with Claire's own first husband, a well-known war correspondent. The accounts of her school-life and times at university (she studies literature at Cambridge) are well-told and absorbing. She worked early in publishing and met a seeming never-ending stream of creative luminaries, and ended up editing the literary pages of the Sunday Times. Late in life she found her true calling writing biographies, most notably the life of Pepys. Tomalin paints a vivid picture of literary life in London in the sixties to the eighties, interspersed with family life - she bore five children, was widowed early and had to support her family alone. She is never sentimental - always clear-eyed. It is a life of privilege, as she would be the first to admit, but also one touched with personal struggles and tragedy. ...more

There are a lot of good elements here - a diamond with a curse on it, great historical detail of the house in London in the late 17th century, a heroiThere are a lot of good elements here - a diamond with a curse on it, great historical detail of the house in London in the late 17th century, a heroine who has escaped a Sultan's harem, a mysterious and sinister woman interloping in the lives of our hero and heroine, Paul and Celia Pindar, a decaying estate in the country, a reprobate brother etc. but it just doesn't add up to anything. Promising plot lines are dropped to concentrate on the quite tedious (and never fully explained or believable) problems between Paul and Celia. This is a mishmash of a book that just doesn't work. It is the third in a series starting with The Aviary Gate so perhaps you have to read them all to get the background, and perhaps the ones set in Syria and Turkey are more interesting (this one starts out in Aleppo and that part was nicely described)....more

This book is a lot of fun. Set in the early seventies, we follow divorcee Marian as she accompanies wayward teenager Stella on a coach tour of Greece.This book is a lot of fun. Set in the early seventies, we follow divorcee Marian as she accompanies wayward teenager Stella on a coach tour of Greece. Things start to go wrong as their fellow tourist experience strange accidents as they trudge around archaeological sites. Then Marian narrowly escapes a rockfall. Everyone comes under suspicion as the tour progresses. Romance, scenery and suspense. Lovers of Mary Stewart will find a lot to like here....more

In a time of taut, fast-paced, violent and unrelenting thrillers, this mystery set in Bombay in the 1920s was a welcomed antidote. Massey seems to beIn a time of taut, fast-paced, violent and unrelenting thrillers, this mystery set in Bombay in the 1920s was a welcomed antidote. Massey seems to be as interested in evoking the feel of the time, it’s mores and details, as setting up the puzzle of her mystery. She spends time, too, in establishing her characters, especially her heroine Perveen Mistry – one of the first female lawyers in India. Perveen is not tough and brash but quietly intelligent and determined. Of course, no detective heroine is going to escape a complication on her past (or present) and Perveen’s is a bad marriage that she just manages to escape (some peculiarity of Parsi law – the Mistry’s belong to this sect – is utilised here). In fact marriage law, in this case, that involving Muslim women living in Purdah, features in the murder that has Perveen perplexed. She is well-placed to investigate as she is able to interview the secluded women. Very enjoyable in a low-key way....more